fight for your castle, make your home
by EMPG22HoPe
Summary: A collection of one-shots and drabbles on characters and ships from the Founders Era. (1. SalazarRowena / 2. SalazarRowena)
1. Almost Perfect (SalazarRowena)

**Almost Perfect**  
by **_EMPG22HoPe_**

* * *

"You are not the man I loved." The winter in Rowena's voice sets his teeth on edge.

His heart should be breaking, or at the very least, tearing itself off his chest from the pain in her words. But his hatred for muggles and muggle-borns were more potent than any love he has ever had for Rowena. At times, he wished it wasn't so. Once upon a time, he had been a doe-eyed boy in love with the most intelligent woman he had ever laid eyes on. Everything seemed almost _perfect_ , even.

But Salazar Slytherin's life refused to revel in the perfection of it.

"I suppose not, Rowena," Salazar replied in a low voice as he turned his gaze back to his paperwork. They were architectural structures, maps of different parts of Hogwarts, his plan for a Chamber of Secrets, his basilisk... one he could not share, even to the woman he loves. "But not even you could not change my mind. After all, if Godric cannot, what makes you any different?"

He lifted his head in time to see Rowena take a step back, looking as though he had struck her with something sharper than a knife. Her thin lips quivered before they set into a hard line. Rowena always was a bit emotional, perhaps even more than Helga, but she was resilient as well. She always did refuse to let him see her weakness.

"This obsession against muggles needs to stop, Salazar." Rowena's told him firmly.

Salazar's lips curled into a wicked smile as he met her gaze. "I wouldn't call it an obsession..."

Rowena inhaled sharply, causing Salazar to rise from his desk. He glided towards her in easy strides. Once he was before her, his hand reached out to touch Rowena's cheek. It was warm under his cold hand, indicating the contrast of their relationship.

"If you no longer love me, then leave," Rowena whispered hoarsely. "And whatever you do... _don't_ come back."

He set his lips into a hard line before he leaned in to press a gentle kiss on her forehead. Though they ached for Rowena's soft lips.

"I wouldn't dream of it, Rowena." He released his hold on her, and he almost smiled shamefully at the way they both seemed to falter at the lack of contact between them.

Salazar turned his back on her, back towards his plans, his future for the good of all wizards, and he never looked back.

* * *

 **Fanfiction Writing Month - July:** 409 words

 **Writing Club - July:** Amber's Attic: Het - 5. SalazarRowena

 **365 Prompts Challenge:** 117\. Era - Founders

 **Fanfiction Resolutions Challenge:** 12\. Write a fic set in Founders era


	2. To Bring You Back (SalazarRowena)

**To Bring You Back  
** by **_EMPG22HoPe_**

* * *

Some people say she's gone mad. Her friends had thought they had completely lost her, hiding behind the recesses of the Headmaster's office, chanting her spells. Perhaps they were right on all claims. She had lost herself in some way, driven by her grief and lost for the love of her life. Cooping herself up in the recesses of the office, almost never leaving, always lacking sleep.

Helga and Godric would often check on her from time to time. It used to be _their_ office too. But Rowena had taken residence within its high walls. Her friends only came to check, but they were too afraid—yes, even _Godric Gryffindor_ —to insight her wrath. The further they tried to make her come to her senses, the harder it was for Rowena to hold back months of pain and internal suffering.

Her thoughts drifted as she chanted the spell. A large, white candle flickered before her. Its flame danced dangerously to the sound of her low voice, flickering violently whenever she poured her pain into the spell. Her hands were raised, palms facing downwards on the lit candle. This was all wrong. This was dark magic. And this is what Salazar would have wanted her to do.

At daylight, the other two founders would find her chanting words to herself, rocking back and forth in a corner of the office, refusing help. But at night, when her friends would give up and rest, she would light the same large candle, chant the same dark spell, and take out the same, unmoving, preserved build of Salazar Slytherin's dead body, laid on the office's desk.

Rowena refused to look at her lover's body, concentrating instead on the flickering flame of the candle. But since the body was merely a few inches behind the candle, it was impossible for her gaze to not flit towards him every now and then. Every time it does, she feels a bit of her resolve shatter, feels the tears in her eyes as she chants the words more eagerly, more brokenly.

She has been trying to cast the resurrection spell for many months now. But tonight, she's learned something new. Something she never thought would be possible, but she would have risked it all just to have him back.

Rowena waved her hand towards one of the cabinets as she continues to chant. A cabinet of glass doors opened to reveal a cauldron that had been stewing with a potion still unknown to most wizards. It bubbled and frothed a thick, green goo, signaling its readiness for the final ingredient. Her hand flickered towards the desk of which Salazar's body lay. A compartment opened, and as she lifted her hand, a pendant raised itself from it.

The glimmering coral pendant moved towards her. It was the first gift Salazar ever gave her; a symbol of their love. He had made the necklace himself, carved from the finest stone known to mankind. She had promised him that she would never take it off, and that she would hold it dear to her heart.

But she must take it off for this very occasion.

She moved the pendant towards the bubbling cauldron, and then slammed her hand in a downwards motion. The pendant plopped into the green potion. It hissed as it sank into its gooey depths. And when it was no longer in sight, steam began to ensue from the cauldron.

The steam covered the office faster than Rowena anticipated. The steam was hot, causing sweat to break on her forehead. But she closed her eyes, ignored the sweat and intense heat that the room has become. She chanted the words even louder now, the white steam getting thicker, searing the very skin on her as though she might burn any moment.

Her vision had gone white from the steam that covered the room, save for the flame from the candle. But that fire soon died, leaving her in a room of nothing but white steam. Not long after she produced the final words of the chant, feeling the spell drain her from the inside out did the steam disperse. And Rowena swore she could have died and gone to heaven when she saw the steam part to reveal Salazar's body twitch on the table.

Rowena gasped in horror, and watched as the body convulsed violently now.

But as soon as the trembles stopped, Rowena fell back and landed on the floor. Salazar jerked his body upright. His deathly pale skin was still ever so apparent, as though he was still dead, but his movements were human, _alive_. Salazar twisted his head of dark hair towards her, and Rowena swore her heart sang.

She bolted from where she had fallen and then raced to where her lover sat.

Salazar caught her in his arms, and Rowena sobbed into his chest. She could hear the beat of his heart. _Thump, thump, thump_. She could feel the cold of his once dead body slowly heat into human warmth. She could hear his breath; hear the sound of his baritone voice murmuring her name.

Rowena lifted her head and couldn't help but laugh at the smile that graced Salazar's lips. She covered his mouth with hers, relishing the taste of his aliveness, feeling him as though it were the first kiss they shared. He was alive. _Alive_.

It had never been done before. It was witchcraft of the highest caliber. Dark magic that Rowena swore she would never touch. It was a horror to every kind of light magic that she has ever produced. A possible horror to her friends once they see what she's done.

But it didn't matter now. Her heart and soul was back. And she knew that if it had been her, Salazar would not have hesitated to bring her back from the dead in the same dark, twisted manner as she had.

* * *

 **Fanfiction Writing Month - August:** 983 words **  
Dragon Breeding Club:** Marcus - Peruvian Vipertooth  
 **Holmes Mystery Challenge:** (object) Candle  
 **Fortnightly Challenge: Chocolate Truffle Craze -** Coating: Cherries/Peels - include a steamy scene.

 **Insane House Challenge  
** 169\. Location - The Headmaster's Office

 **365 Prompts  
** 347\. Restriction - No Dialogue

 **August Auction  
** 50 coins - Colour: Coral

 **Sophie's Tea Room  
** Pink Lemonade: (genre) Horror

 **Writing Club - August  
** **Cookie's Crafty Corner** \- Yarn: Write about someone learning something new.  
 **Lyric Alley** \- 9. For we are glorious  
 **Em's Emporium** \- 6. Lin (Marvelgeek42): Alt — write a story set in Hogwarts.  
 **Bex's Bazaar** \- 4. [Song] When I See An Elephant Fly - Write about something unusual happening.


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